Month: June 2018

Wash a bunch of carrots. I used rainbow carrots but regular orange ones are great. Don’t peel them. If you find that your carrots have a big size difference, consider slicing the largest ones in halves or in quarters. Preheat your oven to 450. Or, if you’re making three ingredient roast chicken, wait until the last fifteen minutes of your cook time to begin cooking your carrots.

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a cast iron skillet over medium high heat. When the oil is hot, drop your carrots in and allow them to cook about a minute before flipping them and searing on the other side. Then, place skillet into the oven and cook at 450 for 20 minutes. If you’ve done the math and realized that this will take you past the time your chicken will be cooked, that’s on purpose. Your chicken needs time to rest before you carve it, giving you time to finish your carrots.

Remove your carrots from the oven and plate. Spread a quarter cup of labneh over them, and drizzle your favorite olive oil + herb sauce. For some of you, this will be pesto. I went with yogurt dip seasoning (dried basil, dried mint, taragon, garlic flakes, onion flakes, pepper and salt) rehydrated in a bit of olive oil. If you have a pine nut sensitivity, blend together 1/3 cup of fresh basil leaves, 1/4 cup olive oil, two cloves of garlic and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt together and use that to top your labneh.

Serve hot. Serves two.

If you cant find labneh, you should know that it’s basically just strained Greek yogurt. You can use regular Greek yogurt or strain it yourself in some cheese cloth.

In a separate dry bowl, whip the three egg whites until they begin to get frothy. When they begin to get frothy, add 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar and a pinch of salt. Continue to whip until stiff peaks form. When you have stiff peaks, fold egg whites into the almond and flour mixture. Pour into a greased cake pan and bake 30 minutes at 350. Remove and let cool on wire baking rack for 15 minutes before removing the cake from the pan.

While cake is cooling, heat juice of three lemons and 1 tablespoon lavender flowers. Let steep 5 minutes, then strain to remove the flowers. Add in 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar and stir to combine. Pour glaze over the cooled cake. Press lavender flowers in while the glaze is warm to decorate if you’re artsy. Otherwise, let cool about 10 minutes after the glaze is applied and serve.

Some notes: if using a stand mixer, whip the egg whites on high. Everything you read on the internet will tell you to whip them at a low to medium speed. And on a stand mixer, this will get you nowhere. With a handheld mixer, start at medium and if you don’t see progress, increase the speed slowly. You should see serious progress in just a couple of minutes and have achieved stiff peaks in about five minutes. If you’re considering whipping the egg whites by hand, good luck and God speed.

Different flavor options:

Instead of lavender, steep fresh basil leaves in the hot lemon juice.

Substitute orange zest in for lemon zest and fresh squeezed orange juice for the lemon juice. Omit the lavender and instead whisk a teaspoon of vanilla extract into the warm orange juice and powdered sugar. In the alternate, throw some pineapple chunks into the warm orange juice in place of the lavender.

Substitute grapefruit zest in for lemon zest, and grapefruit juice and fresh mint for the lemon and lavender.

After cleaning a whole chicken, thoroughly dry with paper towels. Inside and out. I know, it’s icky. You can do it. On occasion, you’ll find a bit of a quill left in the skin. It’s easiest to grasp them using a paper towel so you have enough traction to pull it out.

A lot of recipes will call for lemons or butter. We’re going to avoid those so the chicken can get nice and crispy! And who doesn’t love a recipe that calls for just three ingredients?

I like to let the chicken come to temperature and dry one more time. Add salt and dried thyme into the cavity and place the chicken in a pan. You don’t want the pan to be so large that your chicken is floating out in space. I like to use our trusty Dutch oven. Then truss the chicken. This just means you’re going to use a bit of baker’s or butcher’s twine to tie the chicken legs together to cover a portion of the breast, and it helps the chicken stay juicy.

After trussing the chicken, tuck the wings as close to the body as you can manage. You don’t want them to get too dry, either. Lightly sprinkle dried thyme over the chicken. Now, for the magic. With a heavy hand, salt the chicken with kosher salt. Add a second pass. That salt is going to be where your flavor comes in.

Bake at 450 for an hour. Double check the internal temperature of the breast meat- it needs to be at least 165. Let cool for ten minutes, carve, and serve. Tastes great with a whole grain mustard or Dijon for dipping. Pairs really well with blistered carrots with labneh.

*the link to the Dutch oven is an affiliate link; it doesn’t increase your price, but a portion of the proceeds come back to me.

We were fortunate enough to catch Sprouts in an amazing sale where the wild caught salmon was a dollar per pound less than the farm raised and I snapped up two pounds because you can always make something delicious with salmon. I like this chimichurri with it because the lime juice brings the flavors to life and the jalapeno keeps things interesting. If you’re averse to spicy food, it’s worth noting that once you’ve removed those seeds most of the bite is taken out of the jalapeno. If you’re really averse to spicy food, I’d suggest starting with just one jalapeno with seeds and stem removed and give it a taste test to see if you can handle more. You can always blend the second jalapeno in piece by piece. I also like this sauce because, on days when Graham and I can’t agree on a protein, it tastes just as delicious on his steak as it does on my salmon.

In a blender or food processor, combine 1 bunch of parsley leaves, large stems removed, 2 jalapenos with stem and seeds removed, 1 teaspoon dried oregano, 4 cloves garlic, 1-2 pinches crushed red pepper flakes, 2 teaspoons salt, 3 green onions, the juice of two limes and 3 tablespoons olive oil. Blend until a nice sauce forms. Give it a taste before you remove it to a serving container. Sometimes it needs a bit more salt, though it does depend on how heavily you salt your fish or other protein. It tastes good on a lot of things.

In a cast iron skillet, heat a tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Place two fillets of salted and peppered salmon skin side down into the hot oil and cook approximately 5 minutes. Avoid the temptation to fiddle with the fish as it cooks. Flip and cook approximately 5 minutes more. Remove to plates and top with chimichurri sauce.